JB4Boyne

I have a friend that is looking at a 1998 33' Checkmate. He said another friend thought they had a problem with there stepped hulls back then. What can some of you guru's tell him?
He currently has a 25' Outlaw that he is looking to trade in/sell to up-size, if anyone knows of a good deal.

ROADHOG

John,
I owned 3 Checkmate's in 10 years in the late 80's to mid 90's. I had pretty close ties to the Comb's family. When I wanted to upgrade to the 30 Mr. Comb's suggested I wait a year until they we're launching the new 33 with a step bottom. By the time I was ready to place my order Checkmate stopped making the stepped 33. When talking to Mr. Combs he stated that the 33 stepped bottom was hard to control and was not working out to their standards.

I don't know how many stepped 33's we're built, but my suggestion would be, make sure your friend takes a good long sea trial before the purchase.

Don't forget about the 358 Sonic I have for sale. Your friend might be interested in the Sonic.

hpoffshore

When I was a dealer, we sold several of the 280ZT's, and although relatively fast, they were quite a handful over 75 mph. I believe '98 was the 1st year and they took it out of the line-up shortly thereafter. Good looking boat though...they were offered with both a windshield and a molded-in fairing that I liked on the 28. The step, along w/ the traditional Checkmate pad gave ALOT of lift.

Magicfloat

I would ask this on the Checkmate owners website,those guys know everything about Checkmates. www.checkmate-boats.com Go to the "Play to win" forum.